Documentation for Cheetah (C) 1989 by Jay Jones This program is being distributed as Shareware. This means that you may give this program out to your friends or post it on Bulletin Boards freely as long as the program and this text file are kept together and remain unchanged. These files may not be distributed commercially without my written consent. All I ask is that if you like this program and use it, please send a donation ($20 Suggested?) to the address listed at the end of this file. The only way that I can continue to develop and support this program is if I receive some compensation for the MONTHS I have devoted to its development. Your registration also insures that you will be informed of any upgrades made available. Enough said. Cheetah is designed as a high speed file copying utility. Hard Drive users will find it the most useful, however it does fully support floppy drives also. Effective transfer rates vary depending on the hardware and the data being copied. Hard drive users can expect to see transfer rates ranging from 6 to 14 Mb/Min, averaging about 9 Mb/Min. Selecting Paths: There are two ways to select your source/destination paths. One is to highlight the drive letter and click in the "Select Path" boxes, the other is to double click the drive letter. When double clicking, first the source then the destination will be selected. After that, you can use normal double clicks to select source or hold down the right button when double clicking to change destination. To go into a folder, either double click it or highlight it and click in the "Select Path" box. Selecting Files: Once both source and destination paths are selected, files can be selected by clicking on them, or by holding down and dragging. "Select all" will toggle all files on/off. Also see "Auto Select" in the "Extras" menu below. Extras Menu: From this menu you can see buffer and mem free sizes, change the file sort order, choose whether or not to display the performance window after the copy, or go to either of the 3 submenus (Auto Select, Free Space or Zero Drive). Auto Select Menu: This routine will go through the source path top to bottom (as displayed) and select as many files as can fit into the destination free space. All previously selected files are ignored. The other items are for setting filtering of which files to select. The "File Mask" and the two date fields are ignored if left blank. Archive bit Sensitivity (In the Auto Select Menu): To enable archive bit sensitivity, highlight the "Archive bit sensitive" box. If this box is selected, the select routine will take into account archive bit status relative to the "Select when" option. If archive bit sensitivity is enabled, the directories in the main menu will display archive bit status by showing a ":" if the bit is on, and a "." if it is off. Any time the archive bit sensitivity is enabled and a copy is performed, the bit status of the copied files is changed in memory (ie: "Select when" set ON, all copied files are set to OFF). If "Write Src Dir" is ON, the modified source directory archive bit status will be saved to disk, otherwise it is changed IN MEMORY ONLY and is lost when source paths are changed or you exit the program. Quick Keys: From the main menu, there are several "Hot Keys" to get the sub-functions quickly. ^A Auto Select Menu ^F Free Space ^Z Zero Drive ^B Toggle Folder Buffering On/Off Aborting: Copies can be aborted by pressing the UNDO key, the program will then prompt you to verify the abort. This can be done during all but the final stage of the copy. Folder Buffering: If folder buffering is enabled the program will try to load all copied folders into the main buffer. If you are having problems with buffer size or errors try turning the buffering off to save memory. DO NOT exceed 200 folders in a copy with buffering on! Note: If you are using a version of TOS less than 1.4 you may notice that the double click is a bit SLOW!! This is due to slow return times from the AES. It may be easier with old TOS to make selections by using the path select boxes at the tops of the file windows. Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure that this program is safe to use and error free.... HOWEVER, I accept no responsibility for any damage or data loss that may occur from the use of this program. *********************** Warning *********************** Cheetah does not use standard calls to its copying/deleting! This can cause problems when you exit the program with GEM not being updated properly as to the changes that have been made. Normally this is only a problem if you are running some sort of caching program, and can usually be resolved by hitting ESC on the affected drives at the desktop. If you are unsure as to whether GEM has been updated properly, play it safe, REBOOT! ********************************************************************** * Changes for ver 1.1 11/15/89 * ********************************************************************** Caching: Routines have been added when exiting Cheetah to force GEM to re-read the disks even when caching programs are resident! These routines have been tested with CACHExxx.PRG, HDACCEL.PRG, and ICD's v4.x.x booter, and all seem to work fine. The ONLY thing that we have found that can still cause a problem is if you have a window open into a folder, then delete that folder from within Cheetah. If you have any problems, please let me know. File Size,Date,Time Display A new item has been added to the main menu. By clicking on the arrows you can shift the display left or right through File Name, Size, Date and Time. This can also be acomplished through pressing the left/right cursor keys. ********************************************************************** * Changes for ver 2.0 12/16/89 * ********************************************************************** Media Change: New routines have been added to force a media change on any drive that is altered. This should help to eliminate the problem of having to reboot to access a newly created folder etc.. Many thanks to Don for his hours of work in developing and testing these routines. They have been heavily tested and seem to work fine, however if for any reason you are having problems getting the OS to recognize any changes that have been made, reboot IMMEDIATELY! Warm Boot: A new item has been added in the Extras Menu that allows you to automatically trigger a warm boot whenever you exit Cheetah. Sort Options: Sort Options have been moved into the Extras Menu. Since there is no longer a seperate menu for these, ^S now brings up the entire Extras Menu. Load/Save Config: Two new buttons in the Extras Menu now allow you to save all of your settings out to a file, or load them back in at any time. All of your on/off settings, Auto Select parameters and Source and Destination paths are saved. At startup the program will automatically try to load the file CHEETAH.CNF from the same path that the program was run, if it is not found, defaults will be used. Refresh: Hitting ESC from the main menu will force a complete refresh of both source and destination paths. Delete Originals: You are now asked for confirmation whenever you select to delete the originals after a copy. Byte Count: Displays the number of bytes selected in source directory. Note, this amount does not take into account any folders that may be selected. RAM Disks: RAM Disk compatibility has been increased. Cheetah should work fine now with most popular RAM Disks. **************************** ATTENTION ******************************* Version 2.xx will be the last major revision offered as shareware. Any future major revisions will be available only to those who have shown their support. Some of the areas under development for future updates are the ability to format floppies and increased options for the autoselect function. ********************************************************************** Donations, Comments, Questions or Suggestions: Please write. Jay Jones 9862 S 262nd Pl Kent, WA 98031